A friend recently told me that the smart-contract at the center of a Continuous Organisation made him think of a Trust. I had to do some research because a Trust is a common law concept that I was not very familiar with it. On top of the Wikipedia page, I found this article to be interesting for example.

The more I dig and the more I think the Trust is a great analogy for the smart-contract of a CO. Using the Trust analogy, a CO is an organization that delegates the management of its cash-flows (investments and revenues) to an fully liquid investment Trust where:
1.the trustor is the organization (or organizations in case the CO is setup by several organizations)
2. the trustee is a smart-contract
3. the beneficiaries are the organization and its investors.

This (trustless) fully liquid investment Trust perceives the investors’ money and the customers payments and redistributes them to the organization and its investors according to business specific rules.

Interestingly enough, a Trust is not incorporated, it is just a contract. Obviously, the comparison has its limits but I think it is a close enough approximation and I am seriously thinking about changing the definition of a Continuous Organisation by using the Trust analogy to make the concept of CO clearer and more understandable.